She gave it out that she had been obliged to break her Hull home up on account of the persistent attentions of the police, who “dogged” her in every direction, and made her life a burden.
The “odds and ends” she brought with her are likely to get her into serious trouble unless she can explain how they included goods which originally belonged to persons in the neighbourhood of Blackheath.
During the time Mrs. Peace has been resident at her daughter’s house she has not, as many persons supposed, kept within doors so as to avoid being noticed. On the contrary, she has moved about and freely conversed with her neighbours, who were greatly surprised when the police apprehended her.
The opinion of the neighbours is generally favourable to Mrs. Peace. People are loth to believe that she was the person to connive at the crime with which she is at present charged. They all bear testimony to her good character so far as they could tell.
The daughter and her husband appear respectable people, and have resided at their present address for several years.
After further examination at Sheffield, Mrs. Peace was ultimately sent to London, and on Saturday, Dec. 7th, 1878, she appeared at Bow-street, before Mr. Flowers.
The following is a report of her first examination in London:—
Hannah Peace, wife of Charles Peace, the Blackheath burglar, now undergoing penal servitude for the attempt on the life of a police-constable while in the execution of his duty, was brought up on remand granted by the justices of Sheffield, charged with stealing or otherwise receiving a clock the property of Mrs. Dadson, of 5, Kidbrook-terrace, Blackheath, part of the proceeds of a burglary committed on the 2nd of August. The clock produced in court, was found by the inspector at Darnall, near Sheffield.
Henry Phillips, inspector of the R Division of the Greenwich police, having been duly sworn, said the prisoner, Hannah Peace, had been remanded by the justices at Sheffield several times for her supposed connection with the burglaries committed in Blackheath by her husband, and was, on Friday, finally remanded to London. A small mantel-piece clock had been stolen on the 2nd of August last, from the house of Mrs. Dadson, of 5, Kidbrook-terrace, Blackheath, and corresponded in all respects with one found at prisoner’s house, on the 7th November at Darnall, near Sheffield, when he searched it in company with Inspector Twibell. The depositions producted were taken at Sheffield.
Miss Elizabeth Marian Collison Dadson, daughter of Mrs. Mary Campbell Dadson, widow, of No. 5, Kidbrook-terrace, Blackheath, deposed that the clock produced was her mother’s property, and was first missed on the morning of the 3rd of August. The house had been forcibly entered on the night previous—August 2nd.